Etruscan Bone and flint mill.

Today we continued down the Trent & Mersey Canal passing Etruria at Stoke on Trent.  Here the Caldon canal branches off marked by a statue of James Brindley, famous in the production of canals.

One of the buildings clustered around the junction is the "Etruscan Bone and Flint Mill".  I used to find this a strange concept, milling grain I could understand but bone and flint!   Now I understand that bone was used for both bone china and as bone meal in agriculture.  Flint was also used in the production of pottery, being used mixed with the clay for the production of white stoneware.